Nirvana: “With the lights out” Like many people have said: this box set is recommended only for Nirvana fans. If you like only the Nirvana's pop sound of "Nevermind", "Unplugged in New York" and some songs of "In Utero", it would not be a good idea to get "With the lights out".

CD 1 is full of songs that don't have the quality of a professional band. You have to be a big fan of Nirvana to understand they were immature musicians when they made these early recordings. Although the music and recording quality is bad on CD one, you can still find interesting songs like "Clean up before she comes" which has a second voice that makes the song a little bit elegant. It would have been a great song if they had added drums and bass and if Kurt had played his guitar in a better way than he did. "They hung him on a cross" sounds to me like if Kurt was making fun of a Christian song. It's not a great song but it's fun to listen a rendition like this by Nirvana.

I think CD 2 is the best one. The acoustic version of "Been a son" is great. It makes me think that this song should have been included on the unplugged that the band made for MTV. I love "Here she comes now". I've never heard it played by Velvet Underground, I think Nirvana really made a good cover. The version of "Drain you" on this CD is not as good as the "Nevermind" version but I really like how the second voice sounds. I think it sounds like The Beatles. I didn’t like "Endless, Nameless" version here. Why didn't they included the version that was hidden on the first pressings of "Nervemind"? I am sure most of Nirvana fans don't own the CD where this song was hidden. It would have been an excellent gift for fans. The rest of the songs on this CD are pretty good.

I was a little bit disappointed by CD 3. I only like the "In Utero" songs except for "Scentless apprentice", which is repetitive and boring. There is no need to listen the same riff over and over for almost 10 minutes. I think the acoustic songs played by Cobain on this CD are not as great as they were promised. They are so simple and Kurt does not sound as excited as he sounded on the acoustic versions of "Lithium", "Been a son", "Opinion" on CD 2. It sounds like he got bored of making songs. It's ok to listen "Do re mi" only because it's known as the last song Kurt made. But honestly it’s not a great song as many other he made since "Bleach". More than a Nirvana song, "Do re mi" sounds like Kurt Cobain's solo project.

The DVD has disappointing parts too. Very poor compared with the "Live! Tonight! Sold Out!" video. It's ok to see the party filmed at Krist Novoselic's mom's house but it's too long that it gets boring after four songs. This DVD is good only because of two songs: "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam" (a show at Seattle that should be released on DVD) and "Seasons In The Sun", another cover that I think Nirvana was making fun of. I also like to listen the demo version of "Lounge Act" while you see images of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video shoot; it looks like Nirvana and the people who appeared on this video had a lot of fun while it was filmed.

The booklet is one of the things that makes this box set a must have by any Nirvana fan. Rare pictures, flyers, recording documents, can be found on the booklet. Besides that, there is a lot of information about Nirvana through the years the band was playing. I personally found very interesting the liner notes written by Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore. It's good to know the point of view of an artist that was near to Nirvana while the band was beginning to be a phenomenon.